So, today I decided to finally break down and start designing a theme that changed a LOT of Curves layout.
I started with Message index, and just finished. I've re-written practically the whole entire file, adding a ton of features, and changing the whole entire layout to completely tableless and a more block looking layout.
Screenshots attached below, feedback appreciated.
Duplicate threads, mate. ;)
http://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php?topic=434398.0
Looks nice but a bit heavy on height IMO. Would prefer a more compact layout for an index like that.
My bad. I removed the other one.
That is the problem, do you have any input on how you'd make it more compact with keeping about the same format? Obviously there is going to be a tradeoff, going from an extremely compact table to cat_bar's and roundframes.
TBH, although it looks nice I'm not sure it's the right approach. Really what people usually want on a message index is to go to either new posts or the first post, or to start a new topic. Now in your examples, the first and last post links get lost among all the showy stuff, most of which is no use for functionality.
The first post and last post links were actually designed to be "headers" for what was below, the left half is the first post information, and then the right half is the last post information.
Later on, I decided to turn them into links in addition to utilizing $topic['last_post']['preview'] and $topic['first_post']['preview'].
I know it's a bit much for the Messageindex, but my point for the theme is to recode SMFs templates just to make something new that people haven't seen done before. Not many themes modify more than a couple of things, and to me it gets quite old.
So even if it's not necessarily the "best" approach, it's a different/new one that is a more organized expanded version of the default.
Fair enough. I like hacking templates up too. Custom theming is good like that. Working on the default is horrible, because every time you come up with a cool idea someone is sure to say "But it wouldn't look like SMF" or "But the users will get confused if you change anything" or "You can't give them a cooler and more logical layout. It's SMF! It's supposed to be boring and illogical!"
Drives me bonkers sometimes. ;D
Anyway my 2c is that I like what you're doing in conceptual terms, but I'd be inclined to change the emphasis on some of the elements.
Yeah, after reviewing so many themes that were so close to SMF, I wanted to take some time and just have fun designing something that's totally out of the box. Because honestly? SMFs layout is pretty darn good for a forum, so there aren't a ton of major changes that would be needed to make it look better anyways.
What would you emphasize?
Well, the things people will want to use most often: first post, last post and new posts. Make them more obvious and easy to hit with your brain in neutral, but still styled nicely.
Okay Ant! I'll give it another go tomorrow and see what I can or can't come up with :P
Thanks for the replies
I like the idea of a "full-on" display of each topic..but IMO its not interesting enough - yet. Adding preview of the first post/last posts for example, that could make it interesting enough to justify the big boxes.
But great start, experimenting is fun. :)
I did consider adding the previews as smalltext or something so that they were visible rather than just titles, although I was trying to keep it as small as I could.
I suppose I need to rethink the layout of the box to see if I can come out with something a little more smart.
Thanks Bloc, and yeah it definitely is, I've had a lot of fun with this one so far.
Making new ways to show information isn't easy. Sometimes you need to focus on what your goal is I suppose..is it to make users take more time to read each topic(thereby needing more info displayed) or is just to make it more readable(thereby adding things with air around them => easy to read and to move on)
The typical spreadsheet view is fine - but is just that: a spreadsheet. You read it like one, like a report you scour to see anything useful or interesting.If it were a blog rather than a forum, you'd probably want a preview for example.
So it depends on what you are trying to achieve really. Then work with that and NOT go back because it isn't user friendly, use more height than regular etc. Doing compromises that early will certainly kill the original idea. ;)
I like this look better :)